This invention is directed to apparatus for refurbishing a coke oven doorjamb, and in particular, is directed to refurbishing a deteriorated coke oven doorjamb where the jamb face has been eroded by corrosive tars, flames, and fumes associated with the hostile coking environment.
A typical enclosure for a coke oven battery incorporates a line of spaced apart heavy steel buckstays tied across the top and bottom of the battery with spring loaded tie rods. The buckstay arrangement supports the refractory brickwork that forms a plurality of parallel coking ovens that extend along the length of the battery. Each oven includes two door openings located opposite each other at the coke side and the pusher side of the oven, and the door openings include a one-piece doorjamb equipped with hooks to fasten the coke oven doors.
Modern self-sealing coke oven doors include spring loaded seal arrangements that depend on metal to metal contact between the door and a continuous machined surface that extends alone the cast iron, or ductile-iron, doorjamb. These door seal mechanisms eventually fail because they are continuously exposed to the high temperatures required to coke coal, up to about 1535.degree. C., as well as to volatile matter, tars and fume produced by coking coal. The tars seep out onto the machined face of the doorjamb where they build up into a thick corrosive coating that erodes the highly machined surface and reduces door seal effectiveness.
Coke oven batteries are subjected to very rigid air quality standards set by both OSHA and the EPA. When coke doors begin to leak it is necessary for the operators to immediately repair the doors in order to maintain good air quality levels. In instances where the leakage is caused by an eroded doorjamb, the jamb is replaced with a new doorjamb. Oven door expense has always been a large factor in the over-all cost of coke oven maintenance. Despite this fact, replacing eroded cast iron doorjambs is an accepted maintenance procedure within the industry, and it is a major contributor to maintenance expense. Such repair practice is both time consuming and expensive, and there is no known alternative procedure for repairing eroded doorjambs. In other words, there has existed a longstanding need in the art for a method and/or apparatus to effectively repair eroded coke oven doorjambs at a low cost.